Russian minister admits for the first time: Assad may lose Syria

A Russian minister said today that President Bashar al-Assad is losing control over Syria and his opponents may win.

The comments by deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov are the first acknowledgement by Mr Assad’s main ally that he could be defeated. “We must look at the facts: there is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory,” said Mr Bogdanov.

“The opposition victory can’t be excluded.”

In recent weeks rebels have made gains across a swathe of Syrian territory and are entrenched in suburbs around central Damascus.

Moscow has continued to provide the regime with weapons despite its bloody crackdown on the uprising that began in March last year. Russia has joined China at the UN Security Council to veto three resolutions that would have imposed sanctions on Syria. While Mr Bogdanov’s remarks do not automatically mean Moscow is about to change its stance, analysts say they do appear to indicate it is positioning itself for regime change.

Mr Bogdanov spoke after claims that the Assad regime had fired “Scud-type missiles” on its own people for the first time. Western officials said at least six of the Russian-designed missiles, which have a range of 180-300 kilometres and are notoriously inaccurate, were fired into Free Syrian Army-controlled areas.

Mr Bogdanov called for talks between the two sides, predicting the violence would intensify and hundreds of thousands could die. “If such a price for ousting the president seems acceptable to you, then what can we do? We consider it unacceptable,” he said. He also raised fears about “extremists” seizing the regime’s chemical weapons.

A Foreign Office spokesman said reports indicated that the first Scud was launched on Monday and more had been fired since. “The trajectory and distance travelled suggest these were Scud-type missiles,” he said. “We condemn this in the strongest possible terms. It demonstrates the appalling brutality of the regime and its desperation to go to any lengths to deny the people their legitimate aspiration.”

Nato said surveillance had detected the launch of a number of missiles this week. Scuds were used by Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf war. Colonel Gaddafi’s forces fired several during the Libyan civil war last year.

A car bomb has killed 16 people, seven of them children, in the Qatana suburb of Damascus. Twenty-three people, mostly women and children, were hurt in the attack near a school.